QuantumScape ships QSE-5 B1 solid-state cells; Ducati V21L demo launches VW program
After 15 years and a $3.3B SPAC debut, QuantumScape's first product — Cobra-made QSE-5 cells — ships B1 samples into VW Group's Ducati program.
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2,000 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDInnovaccer bets unified patient data wins healthcare AI: $275M, then Gartner leader
Innovaccer unifies hospital data, sells AI agents on top: $275M Series F (Jan 2025) after down-round talk; inaugural Gartner MQ Leader by Jul 2026.
Read the caseConvoy's 'Uber for trucking' bet: $3.8B unicorn shuts down 2023, tech sold to Flexport
Seattle digital freight broker that automated truckload matching closed Oct 2023 after the freight recession; Flexport bought its tech stack.
Read the casePreVeil bets CMMC's mandate makes encrypted email a defense must-buy
Boston zero-knowledge email startup rides DoD's CMMC rule to 2,500+ contractor customers, then the Pentagon suspends Phase 2 in July 2026.
Read the caseSuperAnnotate bets on owned AI training data: $36M Series B, 1,450% search surge
KTH-origin platform for building and fine-tuning AI training data; $36M Series B with NVIDIA and Databricks; 5x growth; #26 US trending topic Aug 2026
Read the caseOwkin's AI-designed OKN4395 enters the clinic: first patient dosed in Phase I
Owkin bets AI can optimize clinical trials, not just find drugs: OKN4395, its first AI-steered asset, dosed its first patient in Jan 2025 (NCT06789172).
Read the caseChargepoly's depot bet: €23M to make truck-fleet charging a software problem
Chargepoly runs depot DC charging for truck fleets; a Meridiam-led €23M backs its Lucie power-sharing across France, the UK and Canada.
Read the caseOHouse's photos-to-commerce bet: interior posts became a ₩300B+ platform
Bucketplace's bet that interior-photo posts would pull users into buying furniture, booking delivery and hiring builders; 2025 sales hit ₩321.5B.
Read the caseAstra Tech's Botim ultra-app bet: $500M G42 round, 90M users, fintech-first by 2025
Astra Tech bet MENA wants one ultra-app for calls, payments and services: $500M from G42, Botim's 90M registered users, now 150M+.
Read the caseDuolingo bet free gamified learning could go public; IPO hit $6.5B in 2021
Founded in 2011 to make education free, Duolingo grew to 40M monthly users and a $6.5B valuation on its 2021 Nasdaq debut.
Read the caseCreditas bets Brazilians switch to home- and car-backed loans; near breakeven by 2026
Founded in 2012 by Sergio Furio, Creditas lends against Brazilian homes and cars; 2025 revenue R$2.19B, $3.3B valuation, breakeven targeted in 2026.
Read the caseGuodian Gaoke wins China's first satellite-IoT commercial trial license
Guodian Gaoke's 41-satellite Tianqi network became China's first privately licensed satellite-IoT service when MIIT approved a two-year trial in May 2026.
Read the caseVinFast's EV-export bet: a +270% Nasdaq debut papered over $2.4B yearly losses
Vietnam's first global carmaker rode a tiny-free-float Nasdaq debut to an $85B valuation while losing $2.4B a year, then began retrenching.
Read the caseShotsy's Reddit-born GLP-1 tracker bet hit 1M downloads with zero ad spend
Ex-NYT engineer Aja Beckett built a GLP-1 tracker for herself; Reddit word-of-mouth took it to 1M+ downloads, 100k paying subscribers and 350k monthly users.
Read the caseLoggi's hyper-funded delivery bet ends in investor takeover and 88% markdown
Brazil's last-mile unicorn raised US$212M in 2021, then hit the venture winter: investor Capsur took control, marked down 88% and shrank Loggi to breakeven.
Read the caseOrange Slice bets AI agents in a spreadsheet beat cold lists; PH #1, $5.3M seed
YC S25 sales tool: describe a buyer, agents mine court dockets/permits/job posts into a scored sheet; Product Hunt #1 Apr 27 2026, $5.3M seed with Paul Graham.
Read the caseCognition's Devin bet: 30M-view viral launch, $2B in a month, then a $26B valuation
Bet an autonomous agent could do whole engineering jobs: Devin went viral in 2024 (30M tweet views, $2B valuation), then to $26B and $492M ARR by 2026.
Read the caseCellva pivoted from cultivated fat to cocoa-free chocolate brewed from coffee waste
A São Paulo biotech extracts a cocoa substitute from Bahia's coffee husks — 30% cheaper than cocoa powder — as record prices squeeze the chocolate industry.
Read the caseHighview bets liquid air wins long-duration storage; world-first 300MWh plant under way
Highview Power broke ground in Nov 2025 on the world's first commercial-scale liquid air storage plant — 300MWh at Carrington — after a £300M 2024 round.
Read the caseAnyMind's adtech-to-commerce bet paid off with a Tokyo IPO in seven years
Founded in Singapore in 2016 as adtech, AnyMind layered on acquisitions and e-commerce tools, moved its HQ to Tokyo, and listed on TSE Growth in March 2023.
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